Home Insulation options

The cracks and crevices can be caulked before you lay in the fiberglass insulation. The large voids can be filled will spray foam from a can. Did not think the spray foams had that much to do with the r factor as much as the thickness of the wall does. I do believe that you have answered your own question in that cost is a factor. Does sound kind of pricey.

Thank you. Yes, I thought I could probably achieve the same thing for less cost by caulking well before installing the insulation.

Thanks again.

foam sprayed in..

walls and ceilings

I am a building contractor retired. I have constructed a number of buildings that required the applications of unique methods if insulation installation. I suggest that you look at a spray on product called Iceneine. It is a two part, closed cell, fire resistant, foam that is mixed in the spray gun. A good installer wastes very little. That will effect the price. You get what you are paying for only if you know what you are looking at. Fiber glass batts have their place but it is not where you are looking at putting them.

tmf

I would agree with TMF fiberglass bat has its place but like leaving a door open the pockets where it does not reach the frame and the frame leak energy whereas a sprayed product fills without voids. I am an insulated concrete form sub contractor. The forms we use with the roof sprayed and sealed can reach up to 85% more energy efficent than a 2x6 energy star rated home with convential bat ins. BASF teamed with energy products a few years ago in Patterson New Jersey and created a near zero energy home. 85% of the near zero rating was from the building envelope. You might check into using ICF's for the exterior walls. it would take some creative bracing though.

Energywise at www.energywisestructures.com claims they've never had a home built with their recomendations that wasnt a positive cash flow from day one compared to convential wood buildings.

Real home cost by C B Farnsworth and P Huddy have studys showing ICF homes compared to wood ($200k ICF vs $160k Wood) over 30 years save app $600K for the same floorplan.

85% of that savings is the building envelope as I understand it, I commend you for building unconventally.

HIR

Thank you.

I plan to have a level below the actual dome structure, and I will certainly check into ICF as the wall system for that. I also looked into the energy wise site, and will consider having an analysis done.

Thanks again.

Energy-conservers

The dome is great but you haven't indicated as to whether you are going to have AirCond.??

What is the site elevation and if sloped the direction of the slope NE or SW???

What is the annual average temperature = your geothermal temp...

If no AC and if southerly facing slope and if less than 200ft elevation, you will have a problem - 90 days of 90-95\OF in the day and 85\OF at night and Rel.Humid. of >50%-95+% most of the day and night...you got a problem.

Remember the RH+temp is the important element especially the nighttime 11pm-5am (only 6 hr to cool off.

Caulk everything, paint with stark white-thermocoat paints, double air-lock your doors and double-triple glaze the windows...windows only on north side or get alot of Awnings...then plant lots of trees for southerly exposure --- OR put in a lot of solar-electric panels to shade the surface.

Lots of luck - in SoCal the key is also the humidity - low Humid. <25% and most cools off at night but I lived in eastern Kansas without air conditions and most of the older buildings there and Carolinas dealth with the temperatures - follow their examples.

Tom

I live in coastal South Carolina, so yes, most of the concerns you voiced do apply. The elevation is about 30, the lot is relatively level, but does slope slightly to the south west. Yes, we are going to air condition - though it does tend to cool off and have a pleasant breeze at night at least most of the time.

I am going to have a cupola (I believe this was on another response) and do plan to ventilate with the cupola. Actually, the dome system I am planning on has a ventilation system that keeps uses the roundness and the cupola to draw the warm air out of the dome.

I have not looked into double air-lock doors, but that is a good idea. I do plan on glazing with a low UV transmittance window, at least double if not triple. I will have windows on the west (I know, not the best but my spouse wants the view). The lot is wooded and I plan to keep as many trees to the south and west as I possibly can.

Thanks for the feed back.

Johns Mansfield offers a broad range of products that may benefit you in your endeavor

Fiberglass batting is long and narrow. Geodesic dome elements are hexagonal. Fitting the batting would be difficult and time-consuming. You would probably leave significant voids and would have a lot of scrap.

Don't get carried away, however, with low infiltration. If no outside air enters a house, the air soon becomes stale. Odors build up spore (and other contaminants) levels can become unhealthy.

You are correct about sealing the building too well. It can very quickly become a sick building syndrome candidate. I personally dislike penetrations through the roof. I would much rather add a cupola, vented on all four sides and end, vented sewer pipes there with a studer vent cap. Also, bathroom vents can be ended there with any cap needed. As for the kitchen vent, I prefer through the outside wall. It is much easier to clean and repaint the exterior grill cover from there. However, it also can be vented into the cupola. The clear advantage to this is that you can also add a ceiling mounted whole house fan that is self sealing, and occasionally use it to draw fresh clean through the building quickly, thus not having to leave the building open so long that you get a large change in the wall tempreatures. This is most important in the winter when you don't want to spend so much energy reheating the whole building and in hot climates where ac is important you will experience the benefit, except you will not have to waste the cooling effect to cool the walls after they have increased in temp. as you had to leave the building open too long to exchange stale air for fresh.

TMF

Yes, a cupola is definitely in the plans, and apparently works well particularly to help cool at night during the late spring and early fall. I am hoping that with a well sealed and insulated structure, I can forgo air conditioning except in the central summer months. As for venting the other vents you mentioned through the cupola, I had not considered that and will look into it.

Thanks.

I have access to industial fiberglass that comes 6 feet wide and 8 inches thick. The dome structure strut system form triangles, and from what others have said who have installed it, cutting the fiberglass a bit larger makes for a snug fit and there is not much waste. However, I have not seen a comprehensive comparison of spray foam vs. this fiberglass system regarding the actual energy efficiency.

I agree that I do not want to do it with the typical width of fiberglass batting.

Thanks.

Cost effective is often some lowtech commonsense such as the caulking of cracks and seams in the structure prior to insulation installation. Recently I had to demolish much of a home for renovation. It had been filled with some sort of horrible foam instead of batts. The whatever had compressed and sunk in the walls so no insulation was in the upper foot or foot and a half of the bays. Regular old fiberglass batts were better in that they at least stayed where they were put. I think very well of the seam caulking regardless of the foam or batts, and it is true that a home is healthiest if it breaths some. There are some holes in my body. Where the holes are and what they are for in a perfectly insulated home or building is the key to a long lived perfect building. Still, when building a home or any building remember, it is a roof over your head. The Geodesic Dome of Buckminster Fuller is very suited to outerspace, and not really actually best for the earth, in my opinion. When making a home, or a building my theory is that it work for a long time. I'm not surprised at all that early men lived in caves. Ventilation was bad, but insulation was good. Tigers teeth springs hold batts in place, with the caulking and an airflow plan, you would come out as good as required in the South East with fiberglass insulation, though other locations my call for judicious foam of the new sort.

I have heard of some problems with foam systems, and am not sure if that is due to a faulty product in the early days of foam insulation, or perhaps inproper installation. I do think the Icynene system has proven to be pretty good. Again, I am looking at some very heavy duty fiberglass batting too - at 8" thick, it will stay where it is put.

I appreciate your opinion on domes in general, but the designs and technology have improved substantially over the last few decades. I have been in the domes designed by the company I am working with, and they are very much homes in every sense. Plus, I live in a hurricane prone area here, and frankly I want something with at least some chance of standing through one with minimal damage. Domes have just proven themselves most stable. I think it will work for a long time - much longer than traditional stick built (the home I am currently renting was built in 1999, and I give it maybe another 10 years before it is beyond its useful life - and they are trying to sell it for about $300K for less than 2000 sq. ft.).

Again, thank you. If you find out what kind of foam was in that house you demolished, and when it was installed, I would be very interested to know. I will pay close attention to the ventilation as well as the insulation.

I mentioned in post #6 about Johns Mansfield products and gave a hyper link. They have spray application insulation that is fibrous; yes that's correct it's not foam you should check it out may be.

You would be far ahead using either a spray fibrous insulation or a foam from www.cpifoam.com . The trouble with fiber glass batts are the gaping gaps left after installation, IE fiber glass batts rated at R-19 before installation will have a true R value of R-11 to R-13 after. Using CPI 2.0 lb foam at 3-1/2" thickness gains R-30 value saving the cost of 2x6 or 2x8 lumber too.

I am remodeling the old place and using the foam I can add another wall of studs staggered in relation to the original stud frame. Thus gaining R-30 in the original stud bays plus two additional inches of foam in the stagger frame inner wall attaining a total of an R-50 value wall. This configuration also overcomes the heat transfer which normally would occur in the outer wall studs.

Worse case scenario the wind blows it down you have many floatation devises on hand

Consider selling and building a new home with the newest home building system on the market...

www.igreenconstruction.com

Kelly Moore

Good steer, how could one apply their technology to remodel of a one hundred year old home?

The system is mostly for new, but you can make the outside look like almost any look. If you wanted to add on it would be great, but to remodel it would be from scratch I think...

Kelly

It is not a matter of selling. I am looking to build. Interesting website but I did not see a lot of technical facts regarding energy efficiency or construction costs. Is there another website that has more technical information?

The system has passed all the tests for Florida building codes which you know are very strict. The insulation value is over R-45, to be honest with you anything over that is wasted. The home is air tight with no Attic and the homes that have been build here in Florida are running 65 to 70% lower on electric bills for over 8 years now...

Help me out, what does it cost to have a shell built in your area and where are you? That would be walls, roof and a finished exterior and with insulation, without the cost of the slab if built on grade...

Thanks,

Kelly

Thank you for sharing the valuable information.